Hello folks. Last week, I ALMOST fell victim to an ingenious new scheme by an online seller to get buyers to forfeit their PayPal Buyer Protection rights. Seller sent me a PayPal Request for Money after I placed an order with her for certain toy products. I was going to click the submit payment button when I noticed something odd. Instead of clicking the checkbox describing my order as one for goods, the seller had clicked the checkbox saying this was for "services". I later confirmed that this was no mistake on the seller's part.

What's the difference you ask? Well, PayPal's Buyer Protection Policy only covers tangible goods, not services. So, by misrepresenting the transaction as one for services the seller can get her buyers to give up their reversal rights. And almost all buyers won't even realize they have done so! Wow! This is an ingenious little trick!

Still, I was the buyer, and I didn't think this was fair. So I complained and reported this scheme to PayPal. Do you know what PayPal said? Someone at PayPal Resolution Services named "Alma" replied to me via email saying: "Regarding on how the seller categorizes the business, it would be their prerogative". Imagine that! It is the seller's prerogative to lie and misrepresent the nature of their PayPal payment so that they can trick buyers into unknowingly forfeiting their PayPal rights. And I always thought PayPal wanted sellers to be truthful and honest in their PayPal transactions. How naive of me!

I wrote PayPal back saying thank you for tacitly approving this neat little trick and that I would let other online vendors know that PayPal would not care if they pulled this same trick on their buyers as well. So that is what I am doing with this post.

In fact, there is an even better way to do this - a way which I am told was suggested by a gentlement actually working inside PayPal. Instead of sending individual PayPal Requests for Money to your buyers, give them a direct payment link YOU control where you have already clicked the "services" checkbox. How many buyers actually read every little thing in there anyway? Most won't even notice. My own seller said she used this direct payment link over 500 times and no buyer ever caught on or complained!

There's one little detail I'm not sure is relevant or not. My seller has it set up where buyers can only pay via her direct payment link. She cannot receive payments via the Send Money tab in PayPal's website. When I tried doing it that way, a banner appeared saying: "This recipient accepts PayPal payments only through their website. To complete this payment, please go to their website and follow their instructions, or email the recipient for instructions."

All you clever sellers go out and do this neat little trick right away! Tell all your friends about it. PayPal apparently doesn't mind and says it is your prerogative. In the meantime, all you buyers might want to more carefully read whatever payment details your sellers have filled in for you in these direct payment links and Requests for Money. Be careful out there people!

Aloha